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Monday, 15 June 2015

Run on Sun Campaign Update - June 2015

Run on Sun Day of Action
It was the Run on Sun Day of Action at Heeley Festival on Saturday 20th June. We invited Nick Clegg and other MPs such as Louise Haigh. Nick didn't responded to us and Louise was out of the country but supports our campaign. She has given us a supportive quote for one of our press releases.

John, Kiran and Kate took it in turns to dress up in the giant sun which was great for attracting attention. At one point we had people queuing up at the stall to sign postcards calling for a solar powered schools action plan. Basically we want the government to make it easier for schools to install solar panels. At the end of the day we had near 150 signed post cards which we think is a record for a summer stall.

The eco-model also boosted the popularity of the stall for both children and adults.

Richard, John and Hayley at the Heeley Festival

Hunter's Bar School Case Study
Victoria Penman from Hunter's Bar Parent & Teachers Association has done a lot of work to get solar panels installed on the school’s roof. She has issued a press release and photos which we can use as a case study. She is willing to talk to people from other schools and PTAs to support and promote this campaign.

Richard has contacted a number of schools to show them the benefits of the solar power.

Children from Hunter's Bar Infant school with their solar panels

Council
We have contacted Julie Dore, the leader of the council to meet up with her regarding this campaign so that schools might get some funding from our council like Bradford council. She has passed on the details to other members of the council so that we can meet with them. We have not heard anything yet.

Working with others
We are working with Sheffield Renewables and 10:10 for this campaign. Sheffield Renewables gave a talk at the Run on Sun training day in Sheffield hosted by National FoE, which Richard and Kiran attended. The idea to come from this is that the government should make it easier to allow schools to set up solar on their roofs and to have a One Stop Shop to help with this process. All new school should have renewables fitted as standard, a feed in tariff that works properly and a further 6 million solar roofs to be fitted.

Solar Stalls
For our stalls we are thinking about having a giant map of Sheffield with stars for children to mark where they have seen solar panels. Also, we can get a map of UK to show where the highest proportion of renewables are located. Apparently Sheffield comes pretty high but we are intrigued to find out which are the best places in Sheffield.

Next Sub Group Meeting
There is to be a meeting with Sheffield Renewables and the Run on Sun subgroup on 29th June at 5:30 at the Sheffield University Students’ Union.